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Jose Vidro, your 2009 designated hitter

Not to be a downer or anything, but the M’s are showing every sign that they’re content to let their wretched designated hitter’s 2009 option vest.

He’s playing in three quarters of the team’s games so far, and that includes a stretch where he was out with back spasms. Over 140 plate appearances. His option almost certainly vests at 400 or 450 plate appearances. Assuming that as a fragile guy he’ll miss that much proportional time, he’ll still easily clear either of those marks and be back for 2009 at a cost of about $9, $10m, maybe $12m.

Maybe the M’s can’t move Silva, or Washburn, or Sexson, or whatever. But if there’s one thing they can manage to easily do in this horrible season it would be to ensure their abysmal designated hitter doesn’t return for next year.

Comments

Have the Mariners usurped the New York Knicks as the most fiscally backward organization in sports?

jzalman on
May 24th, 2008 10:42 am

Jose Vidro is in our 3 spot for the second day in a row. He doesn’t belong on a roster, and he’s batting 3rd for us. Honestly, if we floated trade offers for ANYTHING, would anyone take Vidro? I think no. And if that’s the case, wouldn’t even a terrible GM realize “Oh crap, no one else wants him for basically free, maybe we shouldn’t roster him, because my ‘lineups’ guy keeps batting him 3, DH no less.”

rcc on
May 24th, 2008 10:44 am

Many years ago the M’s let Jeffery Leonard “sit” rather than see his option vest. I guess the M’s have become dumber over the years, and do not realize that Vidro is the worst DH in the American League.

I know that Doyle is injured once again, but I still count trading Doyle for Vidro as just one of many moronic moves by Mr. Conehead. There may not be enough space to detail all of his many horrible trades, bad signings, and roster mismanagement .

Is Vidro the worst player in the major leagues? The worst value for money? Or is that Sexson?

The Yankees have never been fiscally backward. They overspend because they can afford it, and they typically get outstanding results. They don’t pay Yankee money to Jose [spit] Vidro.

Sklyansky on
May 24th, 2008 10:46 am

It is so baffling. They DFA’d Spiezio, Olerud, Aurillia, Everett, Wilkerson, Boone, etc. But when it comes to Vidro, not only do they let him play, they put him in the #3 hole and all but extend him.

At least there would’ve been some justification in keeping the husk of Olerud and Boone around a bit longer than their expiration date, due to sentiment from ’01. But its not like Vidro has some fan base that would be upset if he were released or stop playing.

b_rider on
May 24th, 2008 10:51 am

Ah, but Jose Vidro isn’t getting all of those ABs. Pepe is getting some of them.

Rcc, you’re making me miss Penitentiary Face, Jeffrey Leonard. He sucked, but he didn’t suck anywhere near as much as Vidro. He’d be the best player on this goddamn team.

dnc on
May 24th, 2008 10:55 am

Dave guaranteed us yesterday that there was no chance of Vidro’s option vesting. I’m pretty sure he has some inside info on this.

feingarden on
May 24th, 2008 10:58 am

There can be no greater indictment against this team’s (mis-)management than letting Vidro’s option vest. The other stupid moves *might* be covered by naivete or optimism, but Vidro… No, there’d be no excuse for this.

Turbo just hit a 3-run homer from the #3 slot. Looks as if he’s got the #3 slot locked up for at least the next 2 months.

bunk_medal on
May 24th, 2008 11:04 am

It’s just Murphy’s Law that you made this post on a day when Vidro hits a home run.

huhwhat on
May 24th, 2008 11:05 am

Yeah that homer just got Vidro his 2009 option in Bavasi’s eyes, just like how Calvin Booth got a big contract for 1 game against Utah.

dnc on
May 24th, 2008 11:11 am

The Yankees have never been fiscally backward.

He said the Knicks, not the Yankees

fetish on
May 24th, 2008 11:12 am

How’s new call-up Vidro doing since the 16th, by the way?

pygmalion on
May 24th, 2008 11:33 am

Not to be a downer or anything, but the Mâ€™s are showing every sign that theyâ€™re content to let their wretched designated hitterâ€™s 2009 option vest.

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

Seattle Times, August 28, 2008:

Jose Vidro Retires from the Mariners in Mid-SeasonA tearful Vidro said goodbye to his teammates today, but admitted that he was “just through” as a baseball players. “A lot of guys, they keep on playing even when they can’t do it anymore. I’ve seen it before. Even Willie Mayes did it. But I made a vow to myself when I made it to the show that if I ever lost my baseball playing abilities, I would hang ’em up myself, rather than insulting the organization I work for and its fans.” He paused and a pensive look crossed his face. “It’s time. It’s tough, but I know that it’s the right thing.

Par for the course for the stupidest organization in professional sports.

I find the Knicks-Ms parallels interesting. Both made colossal mistakes in hiring decision makers who were hopelessly out of their depth.
I can’t really decide which one is worse at roster construction, it’s pretty much a wash.

And both were inexplicably retained year after year despite repeated evidence that they were not only bad at their jobs, but just flat out incompetent.

Personally I think moves like this are equivalent to contempt for the fan base. If Joe Sixpack fan recognizes that Vidro is going up to the plate every game with a giant fork sticking out of his back it is rather insulting to see him trotted out there day after day, 3-run HR notwithstanding. I truly believe that the Ms front office thinks its fan base is stupid, or at least more interested in dancing grounds crew and Willy Bloomquist than in a competitive team.

Sadly, both organizations are pretty much screwed for the next few years; Isiah’s clueless bumbling will ensure that D’Antoni will likely spend the first 2-3 years of his tenure (if he lasts that long) trying to undo all of Isiah’s mistakes. I wish him luck trying to even compete with a roster that, well, blows goats.

And the M’s seem headed down the same path. Whomever takes over from Bavasi is going to have a lot of work to do; Approximately 2/3rds of this entire roster needs to be expunged. That’s just comically bad management.

I don’t think you can assume that he will keep getting ABs at the same rate the whole year. If they don’t want his option to vest, they’ll release him before he gets 450 abs (or whatever the number is).

G-Man on
May 24th, 2008 1:35 pm

24, and everyone else: It violates the labor agreement to bench, release or otherwise manage a guy to to prevent him from vesting or achieving any contract incentive.

You can say they’ll never porove it, but teams have always been reluctant to play it loose in this area. It nmay be more that they don’t want to have a bad reputation among the players when they compete for free agents.

jro on
May 24th, 2008 1:49 pm

The most frustrating thing about this is that Vidro has been putting the ball in play and getting on base during the past week. It’s a spoonful of success in an ocean of failure, but methinks it’s just enough to give the FO enough of a reason to say “hey, we’re not THAT bad at this. Look, one of the guys is coming around. Now, if we can just get the rest of the team to do the same.”

I’m literally to the point where I believe the team has to be no-hit while surrendering double-digit runs for two consecutive weeks before they (the FO) says “wow, something needs to change.”

Mike Snow on
May 24th, 2008 2:01 pm

Isn’t there some hope in that he’ll at least miss half the interleague games?

Relyt on
May 24th, 2008 2:50 pm

If we’re the Knicks, I wanna see BB come down outta the front office and put on a uniform and manage the team himself!

ThePopeofChilitown on
May 24th, 2008 3:58 pm

Maybe Bavasi can trade Vidro for some bats.

JMHawkins on
May 24th, 2008 4:01 pm

And hear hear X. Or is it here here?

It’s “hear, hear” as in “hear him, hear him.”

Or in this case, “read read” I guess. Not to be confused with “Reed, Reed.”

bunk_medal on
May 24th, 2008 4:19 pm

25 – If Vidro performs as bad as is expected then nobody could blame the team for benching him. I think these arguments would only work if Vidro put up numbers that were in some way impressive.

philosofool on
May 24th, 2008 6:20 pm

[we can’t advocate the benching of an exciting young player like this in favor of a Griffey acquisition, at least not in this thread]

philosofool on
May 24th, 2008 8:29 pm

[metacommentary, and this isn’t a Griffey thread, not that difficult to understand]